Over a year ago I noticed there was oil leaking. After dropping my tranny, I noticed the leak was around the Rear Main Seal. Prior to re-installing the tranny, I replaced the Rear Main Seal and coated the rubbers with engine oil. I also inspected for any scores or burrs on the crankshaft. All was good. I even placed a small amount of RTV around the Rear Main Seal Retainer. After arriving home, it was leaking again. This leads me to believe that the Rear Main Seal Gasket (Highlighted number 8) is bad. According to the instructions, I gotta loosen up the oil pan. Is it really necessary to loosen up the oil pan to gain access to the Retainer Gasket?

 

I asked a good friend of mine (Chevy8588 ) about the gasket and he told me that it was not necessary to drop the pan. Im just trying to figure out if there is a reason why the manual says to drop the pan.

 

Never mind. I do have to drop the oil pan. The red arrows point to some studs on the retainer.
rearmainsealretainerstud.jpg?t=1324534738

 

delete

 

Haha. It's all good man. I've removed the tranny 3 times for other reasons and I rebuilt my engine about 2 years ago. I jus wasn't sure about if the retainer removal involved anything else which was lowering the oil pan.